Pink Ribbon
by keeponwritin
Summary: Drew has an essay to write.


A/N: I don't know where this came from. I just sorta caught up on the last 4 episodes the other day and finally felt an urge to write some fanfic.

The views expressed in this story are not my own. The narration is sort of weird, I'll admit that. It's 3rd person but it's sort of like a voice in his head. Anyway, yeah, not my thoughts or opinions on anything. Also, I disregarded the show's stupid use of the name "Facerange" and just went with "Facebook," because seriously, I have no idea why they do that.

This takes place in a pretty specific time period: right after 10x14, before 10x15, i.e. Drew and Alli are a couple but before everyone finds out about Adam. So there you go. Enjoy?

P.S. I wrote this story about Drew writing an essay while procrastinating on my own essay. Oh, irony!

_åøåøåøåøåøåøåøåøåøåøåøåøåø_

_There's no real question or prompt you necessarily need to answer. It just needs to focus on a powerful woman and her struggle to overcome gender conventions. It can be a public figure or someone from your personal life. Remember that this is not a formal research paper; be sure to talk about the impact this particular woman has had on your life. _

_I know you can do this, Drew. Please try to put some effort into it._

Drew scoffs.

Four hours later, after he's surfed Facebook, tweeted 6 times (_"found 10 dollars in my pocket, sweet,"_ _"ugh, why is it so cold 2day?"_), played some God of War III, and watched stupid YouTube videos of guys trying skateboarding stunts and falling on their asses, Drew accidentally clicks the window with the e-mail.

He scoffs again.

It's a stupid assignment that Ms. Dawes gave him 'cause he's failing English, or whatever. It's some essay contest that she wants him to enter, and she says if he does it, she'll give him extra credit which might help him get that D- he's been striving for. But of course, it's the stupidest of topics, because it's a national essay contest for Women's History Month. And he totally knows that that sounds douchey and he wouldn't say it out loud, but like, come on. Really? Women have the right to vote, they can be politicians, they can get jobs. Wasn't all that bra-burning stuff about how women could like, do what they want now? Drew had totally listened to Perino in that one class last month (he'd heard the words "sexual satisfaction" and suddenly got interested). He just doesn't really think women have any problems nowadays, not like how they did back then. So having a whole month dedicated to them seems kind of pointless. If they could have a month, could men have a whole month? That was what it was all about, right? Equality, or whatever?

But he knows if he writes that, he'll get in trouble and then he definitely won't get that extra credit he desperately needs. He knows if he even said that stuff, he'd probably get lectures from at least two people, but that was only 'cause they're both female. He knows all guys agree with him, deep down, even if they won't admit it. 'Cause really... chicks have it made. They get to dress all hot and sexy and they all just know they're driving guys in the hallways crazy. Who really cares about political power when girls totally have all the power when it comes to sex?

But as stupid as he thinks the whole thing is, he needs to not be failing English this early in the term. No one's said anything official yet, but teachers have made hints about getting kicked off the football team, and that's just not okay. Not after he worked so hard to get that QB position, which is at least 30% why girls are interested in him, a fact he acknowledges, accepts, and is not upset by. It's not like he'd be in social hell if worse comes to worst and he has to give up the team for a few games—he still has his good looks and charm to fall back on—but his pride is not cool with the fact that QB would definitely go straight to Riley. ... Haha, straight. Riley. He chuckles to himself. But a knock on his door jerks him out of it. He knows just by the knock that it's not his mom.

"Hey." When Drew turns around and sees his brother standing there, Adam already has that bemused smirk on his face. After all, it _is_ Drew. Sitting at a computer. With an _e-mail_ open instead of porn or Facebook. It's kind of a strange sight. But Adam knows he'll get punched (or at least receive a threat about it—Drew would never actually hit Adam) if he laughs, so he just kind of squints and furls his brow. Drew gives a deep sigh and grimaces. And that's all it takes for Adam to know that this is yet another night of Drew having some major essay/paper/project/fill-in-the-blank to do that's due tomorrow, and that, despite it being 7 PM, he hasn't even started thinking about it. Adam's the only person Drew's ever been able to have whole conversations with made up solely of facial expressions. "So I guess that's a no to heading to The Dot with me, Eli, and Clare..." Drew widens his eyes and just stares. "I didn't think so" is what Adam replies, but it's clear in the half-second of a wistful stare that he wishes his brother got along with his new friends. "Well," he continues, after he snaps out of it, slapping his hand against the doorframe. "I'll see you later, then."

"Wait." Adam turns back around, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed.

Drew wants to ask for help. Adam's the only one he can ask for homework help. Everyone else makes him feel stupid. But now he's looking at Adam, he's remembering the topic, and he's right back at that place that he can't ever seem to let go of: looking at Adam and only seeing Gracie. He doesn't really know how Adam feels about women's rights, or powerful women, or whatever. Even if he knows Adam has the brain of a dude, it's like... he has to know that he's really biologically a girl, right? So there has to be some tiny "chick part" of him that feels really strong about women's rights, 'cause if things were just slightly different, there'd be no Adam, and it'd only be Gracie, and if Gracie were Gracie and not Adam, then Gracie would definitely care about women's rights and Women's History Month and powerful women and whatever. But Adam always gets touchy when he brings up stuff like that, and it sounds like it would just turn into an argument, so maybe it would be better to just let it go and let Adam go hang out with his friends who get to be blissfully unaware that their new bestie is transgender.

"Yeah?"

"... Nevermind. See you."

Once Adam is gone, he goes and shuts his door completely. He sits back down at his computer and reads over the e-mail one more time (it still makes him scoff), then wills himself not to check Facebook or Twitter, and instead to open up a new window: Google.

Okay. Women. "_powerful women_," he types. He clicks the first link. Michelle Obama? He doesn't know anything about her other than she's married to the US President. Oprah? She's annoying. Lady Gaga? He doesn't even understand how Lady Gaga is powerful, he just thinks she's creepy. There's some lady on this list who's apparently the CEO of Kraft, and he's always liked Easy Mac. So it's a woman who became CEO, which is hard for women (he guesses), and his personal connection to it is that he likes macaroni and cheese. It sounds good enough.

He goes to her Wikipedia page to find out a little more. It's short, but it's whatever. He doesn't plan on making this essay much longer than a page, double-spaced. He'll make it size 14 font if he has to. He opens Word and starts paraphrasing her Wikipedia page and embellishing it where Wikipedia leaves holes.

_Irene Blecker Rosenfeld was born on May 5, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents. When she was a kid she was interested in business. For university she went to Cornell University and studied psychology but after, she studied business. Later she became CEO of Frito-Lay and then Kraft Foods. I think Irene Rosenfeld is an inspiration because most CEOs of companies are men, but Irene is a woman and yet she got these jobs. I think it's inspirational that a woman can be a good businessperson and help make great products like Kraft d_

There's another knock on his door, but it's more impatient, so he immediately knowsit's his mom.

"Honey, what are you doing in there?" Embarrassing situations have happened before and she clearly wants to avoid a repeat, but she also doesn't like the idea that her son uses the computer _she_ bought to look at disgusting images. He knows this only because the last time she caught him, she told him so, but even he's beginning to get the real message, which is that she doesn't like that her son(s) are sexual in any way. If he'd dig a little deeper, he'd see that Audra Torres just isn't, and never was, prepared for this—she'd birthed a daughter and wound up with two sons. But Drew never digs that deep. "Adam told me you have some kind of an assignment. I can help you out if you need it." Just when he's about to yell out his exasperated response, the cell phone on his desk chirps. He picks it up. "_hey, what r u doing tonight? thinking about you :) _ _" _He smiles for a split second, thinking of getting out of this room, and this house, and getting to meet up with Alli and make out somewhere, but he looks back up at his computer screen and the essay with only 5 lines and sighs again. He thinks for another split second that Alli could probably get an essay like this done in 15 minutes, and he's mad at himself for making that whole "people think I'm stupid" fuss, 'cause if he hadn't, he could've just had Alli do all his homework for the rest of the year. He starts typing back his reply ("_essay 4 dawes, not goin well. thinkin about u 2_") but then there's more knocking. "Honey, I'm opening this door in 5 seconds, okay? Okay... 5... 4..." He finishes off the text and shoves it in his pocket; his mom still doesn't know about Alli being his girlfriend and he'd like it to stay that way.

"You can OPEN it, I'm not doing anything, jeez." She does, walking in with a basket full of clean laundry at her hip, smiling brightly at the fact that he is, in fact, sitting at the computer with a Word document open.

"So what class is it for?"

"English." It's not a total lie.

"Oh, English. English was one of my best subjects in high school, you know."

"Good to know, mom." There's still a weirdness to calling her 'mom,' and Drew isn't sure why. His real mom left him and his dad when he was barely 2, so it wasn't like he ever got much of a chance to call _her_ "mom." And he'd known Audra, the woman standing in front of him, since he was 6 and a half; by 8, she was officially his stepmom. He should've been happy to have a mother figure, but instead, he just felt weird about it. Even now, 8 years later, it was still kind of weird.

"So what's it on?" She begins unpacking the folded laundry from the basket and putting it in the chest of drawers. He hates that. He always wishes she'd just let him put away his own laundry, but he thinks she likes snooping around in his drawers for anything unsavory.

"Just w—" His pocket chirps again. She looks over, and it's obvious she wants to know who it is, her mind immediately jumping to the conclusion that it's a girl, and that it's probably dirty pictures she's sending her angelic son. It's risky pulling out his phone to read the text with his mom still there, but he knows that sometimes chicks freak out if you don't reply fast enough, so he does anyway. "_well i wont distract u, i know u can do it! if u want help let me know _ ". He keeps his best poker face on, because his mom is still staring at him and even the slightest smile will tell her it's a girl he's talking to. "_but what if i want u 2 distract me? ;)_"

"How is this getting your paper done? Hm?" Drew just sighs and spins around his chair so she can't see it when he rolls his eyes. He doesn't argue with his mom a lot, and since he got in trouble for that whole Alli-doing-his-paper thing—even though that wasn't his fault, at all—he's definitely not going to now. He hopes she'll just finish with the laundry and leave already, but she doesn't. "I just want what's best for you. Next year, you'll have university applications, and..." She stops short of saying 'I want you to get in somewhere good.' "I just want them to see how talented you are." At sports. "You just need to get the work done, Drew. It may not be fun, like... texting random people is, but it should be your main goal right now. So you can have a better future. If you just put in a little effort now, things will be so much easier for you la—" She's cut off by the chirping of the phone again, but it's irrelevant; he tuned her out 30 seconds prior anyway. Now it's her turn to sigh. She's usually harsher with Drew, but she's had a long day, and talking to him is like talking to a brick wall sometimes. He's busy replying to Alli's text ("_dreeeeew, not now, do ur paper!_", "_i cant, 2 much stress... need sum cheering up..._"), so she grabs the laundry basket and walks towards the door. "I'll be out at a board meeting, call me if you need me. There's leftover spaghetti in the fridge." Suddenly he spins around.

"You didn't make dinner?"

She gives him a look and walks out. It's a thankless job.

Once his mom is gone, Drew figures he should try to get back to his paper, but he forgets where he left off. He starts rereading what he already wrote, but by the time he gets to the second line, Alli has responded. He's all smiles and "gonna get some" when he picks up his phone to read it.

"_im serious, didnt u tell me ur doing badly in english? get it done and then we can go somewhere"_

That kills his buzz. He thought he liked Alli because she's smart, because she has a mind of her own, because she actually cares about stuff like school. Braindead chicks like Marisol get on his nerves. But having a girl constantly hovering over him about doing schoolwork is getting to be just as bad. He knows he's not as smart as Alli. She uses big words. She wants to be a brain surgeon, or something. He just wants to play sports and make out with girls. He thought letting Alli call him her boyfriend would make her happy and get her off his back a little, but it isn't working. Now she just seems to care even more. He texts back "_whatever_" and shuts off his phone. Maybe he should've listened to his gut that Alli was too much drama.

He signs back on Facebook. He almost cancels his relationship with Alli, but it's not worth all the bitching he would hear about 'breaking up with her on Facebook.' He makes his status "I hate school." He stares at his news feed for a while. There's no one interesting on it at first, but after a minute or two: "Bianca DeSousa has updated her profile picture." His interest is piqued, so he clicks. It's her in a push-up bra, clutching her boobs and sticking her tongue out. He clicks to the next: she's half-naked and kissing some guy on the cheek. The next: she's doing a keg stand. He doesn't know what exactly is making him keep looking. Sure, Bianca's hot, but she's also trashy, slutty. No self-respecting guy at Degrassi would touch her. She probably has... diseases. STDs. She has a reputation for a reason. Yet still he winds up looking at every picture on Bianca's profile, mesmerized by the way her body looks in those short, tight dresses.

He forgets what he was saying in that essay anyway.


End file.
